SAN ANTONIO (AP) A Texas judge has ordered a comprehensive psychological evaluation of a former nurse convicted of killing a toddler and giving an overdose to an infant who survived.

Genene Jones is charged with killing four other babies and awaits trial on a murder charge for the death of 11-month-old Joshua Sawyer in December 1981.

Her attorneys requested the evaluation in the hope of supporting Jones' claims of diminished capacity because of strokes and her assertion that she hears phantom voices.

Authorities suspect Jones, 67, is responsible for the deaths of as many as 60 children.

She's served decades in prison since her first murder conviction in 1984 and was to have been released last March, but Bexar County prosecutors obtained indictments charging her with murder in four other infant deaths.

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" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan

The possibility of a plea bargain was raised for the first time Thursday regarding five new murder charges filed against “Angel of Death” Genene Jones, even as the debate continues over whether she is competent to stand trial.

Jones, a pediatric nurse convicted in 1984 of killing a Kerrville toddler with an overdose of muscle relaxers, has been in Bexar County Jail since she was arraigned more than a year ago in the deaths of five San Antonio children in the 1980s.

Thursday, Magistrate Judge Andrew Carruthers accepted a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation that found Jones, now 68, competent to stand trial, but he ordered a second evaluation after her attorney challenged the report’s findings.

After the hearing, Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales said his team is prepared to take Jones to trial in the new cases, but he added that “everything is on the table,” including a plea bargain, if the families of the deceased children agree.

“We’re open, no doors have been closed, in terms of trying to resolve this, whether by trial or some agreement,” Cox said. “We feel there should be closure to both sides of it. We are open to any type of situation to help us resolve this matter.”

At Thursday’s hearing, Cox asked Carruthers to appoint Dr. Brian Skop, a forensic psychiatry specialist, to conduct the second assessment, which the judge did.

It’s unclear how long the second competency assessment might take, and another hearing is expected to be set on the matter at a later date.

The results of the first evaluation by forensic psychologist Michael Jumes, Ph.D., took months, but Cox said he thinks the findings from a second doctor could come more quickly.

“I asked for a second opinion based on the complexity of the case,” Cox said, noting the deaths are nearly 40 years old. “A second doctor will look at the findings, would make a second assessment, and at that point we will have our jury trial, depending upon what both evaluations show.”

Cox said he is familiar with both Jumes and Skop, who contract out their services and routinely have done work in the courts.

“They are known and respected by both sides,” he said. “We can depend on them by reputation.”

Addressing media after the hearing, Gonzales said he and his team believe Jones is competent, but they have to wait for the findings of the second assessment. Even if the cases don’t go to trial because a plea deal is reached, he said, competency still is an essential finding.

“She has to be aware of what’s in front of her,” he said. “She has to be competent enough to understand the consequences of a plea deal.”

Incompetency at times can be confused with insanity, but experts point out they are two distinctly different things.

“Insanity usually focuses on the mental state at the time of the offense,” said Geary Reamey, a law professor at St. Mary’s University. “Incompetence doesn’t mean that you are now free to go; it means you will probably be held in confinement for treatment.”

If a jury were to find Jones incompetent, she would be sent to an institution for up to 120 days. That could be extended, if necessary. Once a person regains competency, no matter how long it might take, he or she returns to court, Reamey said.Jones was 35 when she was convicted in 1984 of murder in the 1982 death of Chelsea McClellan, who was 15 months old when she was injected with an overdose of succinylcholine, a medication used to cause short-term paralysis as part of general anesthesia.

The pediatric nurse was working in San Antonio and Kerrville at the time of Chelsea’s death and during the deaths of the other children named in the new indictments.

She was sentenced to 99 years in prison in Chelsea’s case and also was found guilty of injury to a child for attempting to overdose Rolando Santos in San Antonio. That child survived. Jones was sentenced to 60 years in that case, and both terms were served concurrently.

A law designed to ease prison crowding that went into effect while she was incarcerated would have allowed Jones to be released in March 2018.

But before that could happen, LaHood presented two separate grand juries with five cases from San Antonio around the same time as Chelsea’s death, and Jones was indicted in each one in 2017.

In the new indictments, Jones is accused of murder in the deaths of Richard “Ricky” Nelson, 8 months, who died July 3, 1981; Rosemary Vega, 2 years old, who died Sept. 16, 1981; Paul Villarreal, who was 3 months old when he died Sept. 24, 1981; Joshua Sawyer on Dec. 12, 1981; and Patrick Zavala, 4 months, who died Jan. 17, 1982.

All were patients at the county hospital in San Antonio, now known as University Hospital.

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" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan

I don't think she got out. Maybe transferred to another prison. This is a snip from Sept. 2018 "In 1985, Jones was found guilty of injecting an infant named Rolando Santos with a blood thinner named heparin, nearly killing him. She was found guilty and sentenced to 60 years for this crime.

In the wake of Jones’s conviction—and to avoid further bad publicity and lawsuits—the Texas hospital system destroyed every last document relating to Genene Jones, so we will never know for sure how many children she killed. Examiners say the death toll may be as high as 60.

Due to Texas laws regarding prison sentencing and overcrowding, Jones is eligible for parole in 2018. To counter the possibility of her ever being freed, the State of Texas recently indicted her for five more infant murders and has promised to indict her for more."

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A Texas judge has sided with prosecutors in withholding a Bible, letters and other personal items from a former nurse suspected of killing up to 60 children.

Bexar County prosecutors argued in court Wednesday that 68-year-old Genene Jones' writings in her Bible and other documents amounted to evidence showing her ability to comprehend.

A court determined in February that Jones is competent to stand trial, but her attorney says she has diminished capacity because of strokes.

Jones has served decades in prison for her 1984 conviction in the death of a 15-month-old and for giving an overdose to another infant.

She was scheduled to be released last year when prosecutors, citing new evidence, filed the first of five separate murder charges for infant deaths in the 1980s. She's pleaded not guilty.

Bexar County District Attorney Nico LaHood previously said each case will be tried separately. Jones could face up to life in prison on each charge.

Children died of unexplained seizures and other complications when Jones worked at a San Antonio hospital and clinic in Kerrville, about 55 miles to the northwest of San Antonio.

The first case to be tried will be of 11-month-old Joshua Sawyer, who investigators say died in 1981 of a fatal overdose of an anti-seizure drug.

Prosecutors at Jones' 1984 murder trial said the nurse lethally injected children at the Kerrville clinic to demonstrate the need for a pediatric intensive care unit at a nearby hospital. Other prosecutors theorized that her tactic was to take swift medical action and save some of her victims so she could appear to be a sort of miracle worker.

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" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan